Liceo Scafati RENATO CACCIOPPOLI

In 2004, the school Liceo Scientifico has been dedicated to Renato Caccioppoli.

He was born on 20 January 1904, in Naples. His mother was Sofia Bakunin, daughter of Michele

Bakunin. Followingthe wishes of his father, a known Neapolitan surgeon, Renato registered to

Engineering, but then he attended Mathematics.

In 1925, he graduated at the University of Naples. In 1928, Renato qualified as an

university teacher and then he went to Padua, where he won the competition for the chair of “Analisi Algebrica”. At the age of 28, the Academy of Lincei conferred him the national prize of the class of Physical Science. In 1934,he went back to Naples to teach The “Teoria dei Gruppi”, “ Analisi Superiore” and “Analisi Matematica”, until his death.

His life was always quite problematic. His eccentric and nonconformist personality, profoundly antifascist, induced him to experiment the life of the vagrants and of poor people, he was arrested for mendacity. In 1938, he improvised a speech against Hitler and Mussolini, for this reason he was arrested and was interned in a mental home because people believed he was mad.When he was released he continued to teach at university.